Industry at the table: Nominate your subject matter experts
Training only reflects industry practice when the industry builds it.
That is the premise behind prefabAUS’s role at Melbourne Polytechnic’s Future of Housing Construction Centre of Excellence, and it is why we are asking members to put their people forward now.
The Centre is a national initiative of the Australian and Victorian Governments under the National Skills Agreement, established to accelerate industry adoption of modern methods of construction. prefabAUS is its contracted industry mobilisation partner. Melbourne Polytechnic designs, accredits and delivers the training. Our job is to make sure the industry that will employ the graduates is in the room while those courses are specified, built and delivered.
That matters in three places. Industry identifies the capability gaps and shapes the course specification. Industry reviews the draft material for technical currency, accuracy and real case studies. Industry stands alongside Melbourne Polytechnic educators in delivery, so what a learner sees matches what a factory floor and a site actually expect.
Miss any one of those, and you get training that satisfies a curriculum requirement and disappoints an employer.
Our most urgent need: installation
The immediate priority is expert input into the design and delivery of training in the installation of prefabricated building systems — pods, volumetric modular and panellised. Set-down and craneage, tolerances and setout, weatherproofing and interface detailing, services connection, sequencing, and the site safety realities of landing manufactured building elements. This is the subject of the Certificate III in Prefabrication Installation, the first course offering being progressed with the Centre, and it is where we need experts first. If your business installs, we want to hear from you.
The wider call
The Subject Matter Expert Register covers the full value chain:
Design and architecture, including design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA)
Manufacturing, factory production and quality assurance
Transport and logistics
Installation and site integration
Compliance, certification and building approvals
Emerging capability — lean manufacturing, automation, robotics and artificial intelligence
The emerging areas matter as much as the established ones. The skills gap the Centre exists to close is not only today’s gap; it is the one arriving with automated lines, robotics and AI-assisted design.
What it involves
Contributions are scoped and time-bound. Depending on the activity, that might be a co-design session, a review of draft course material, a validation checkpoint, or co-delivery days alongside Melbourne Polytechnic educators. Confirmed experts complete a Working with Children Check and Melbourne Polytechnic’s teaching practice induction before any delivery. We manage the scheduling, briefing, and paperwork.
How to nominate
Businesses nominate through the prefabAUS Subject Matter Expert Register:
www.prefabaus.org.au/sme-register
Nominate one person or several. Tell us what they do and where they do it, and we will match them to the activities where their expertise counts. If you would rather talk it through first, contact me directly.
Jeremy Rose
Manager Workforce Development Partnerships and Programs
jeremy.rose@prefabaus.org.au | +61 499 016 322